Mobile computing devices are prevalent today. Users often travel to various locations for business and/or pleasure, and often need to retrieve data from one or more networks. The data is often stored on more than one network resource and the network resources are often located in various geographic locations. Thus, a user wishing to connect to a network must decide which network resource to connect to.
Although several methods exist for determining which network resource to connect to, these methods suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, some methods calculate the response time for a number of available network resources, employ subnet masks, and/or force users to choose an appropriate network resource from a list. It will be appreciated that the determination of a response time for each network resource in a sophisticated communication network employing numerous network resources can be quite time consuming. Furthermore, forcing the user to choose a network resource can be complicated and possibly confusing to the user. If the user is traveling, for example, to a location in the Midwest, and network resources are available in both the east and the west, the user would have to make a determination of which location is closer.
Other methods and systems include the use of dedicated network elements, such as, for example, redirecting servers, to provide options to the user indicating the most appropriate network resources to connect to. It will be appreciated that the user of such redirecting servers require network integration, ties up network resources, and requires the user device to communicate with the redirecting server in addition to sustaining its communications session with a network resource.